UK press outraged at dying Diana photos
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-04-22 17:15

Diana: 'I need a place to hide away ...'

British media and associates of Princess Diana expressed anger Thursday after CBS broadcast photos of the dying princess taken moments after a car accident.

View of the car that transported Diana after it crashed in Paris 31 August 1997. The US television network CBS was to broadcast photographs of Princess Diana in the minutes following the fatal car crash. [AFP/file]

The Guardian newspaper said the US network had decided to "plumb new depths of prurience in the Princess Diana industry."

CBS' "48 Hours" program showed two black-and-white pictures taken by paparazzi at the scene of the Aug, 31, 1997 accident in Paris. Diana died hours later. Her companion, Dodi Fayed, and chauffeur Henri Paul also were killed.

The network insisted the pictures — which showed an unconscious Diana being treated by a doctor as she lay slumped in the back of a car in the Alma road tunnel — were not graphic or exploitative.

But Dodi Fayed's father, Mohamed al Fayed, said CBS had behaved in "disgraceful and insensitive" manner.

Princess Diana with her two sons, Prince William (seated, F) and Harry [file photo]

"CBS obviously don't care about the appalling effect of showing images of murder victims," said Fayed, who has long insisted that Diana and his son were murdered. A lengthy French investigation concluded the crash was an accident caused by drunk and speeding driver Paul.

Clarence House, the office of Diana's former husband, Prince Charles, and her two sons, declined to comment on the program.

CBS said the pictures were included in a confidential French investigators' file on the accident. No major media outlet had previously run pictures of the injured princess, although several are believed to have been offered for sale.

Britain's tabloid newspapers gave the story prominent, outraged coverage on Thursday. "Fury at TV photo of dying Diana," said the Daily Mail.

"US TV shows Diana dying," ran a front-page headline in The Daily Mirror. In an editorial, the newspaper said showing the "vile images" had been "horribly offensive."

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